Pete Postlethwaite leaves just £185,000 in his will despite box office hits

He was hailed as ‘probably the best actor in the world’ by Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg.

However, film and theatre star Pete Postlethwaite, who died earlier this year of cancer, was worth just £185,000 at his death, probate documents have revealed.

Details of the will emerged this week and showed his gross wealth was £320,000 and after debts and taxes had been paid, it was reduced to £185,000.

Legacy: Pete Postlethwaite's will has revealed that the he left his wife, pictured with the actor and his children in 2004, £185,000

That left a legacy for his wife Jacqueline Morrish – who he described as he was dying as his ‘one true love’ - that would barely cover the make-up bill of some Hollywood films.

The star passed away on January 2 following a long battle with pancreatic cancer, aged just 64.

Postelthwaite had major parts in a number of box-office hits including British film Brassed Off as we all as big-money Hollywood hits like The Usual Suspects, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Amistad, Alien 3 and The Shipping News.

Even up to his death Postlethwaite continued to act with his final on-screen role being in Nick Hamm’s Killing Bono revealing his increasingly frail physique.

Last role: Even up to his death Postlethwaite continued to act with his final on-screen role being in Nick Hamm¿s Killing Bono

Box office: Postlethwaite had major parts in a number of hits including British film Brassed Off as we all as big-money Hollywood films

Among the big names that paid their respects at his remembrance service in Shoreditch, East London, were Daniel Day-Lewis, Kevin Spacey and Julie Walters.

Addressing the congregation at St Leonard’s Church, Day-Lewis said: ‘My great good fortune was to serve an apprenticeship under Pete Postlethwaite.’

Postlethwaite – who had previously overcome testicular cancer – earned Spielberg’s praise after working with him on The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

But the modest actor responded by saying: ‘I'm sure what Spielberg actually said was, "the thing about Pete is that he thinks he's the best actor in the world".'

The Academy Award nominee married former BBC producer Morrish – with him he has two children Will, 21, and Lily, 15, - in 2003 in Chichester.

The couple later moved to the village of More, near Bishop’s Castle, in Shropshire.

Tributes: Steven Spielberg said Postlethwaite was 'the best actor in the world' while Daniel Day-Lewis said it was his 'great good-fortune to serve an apprenticeship under him'

Postlethwaite was born in Warrington,
Cheshire and studied to become a teacher at St Mary's University
College in Twickenham, South West London.

He previously said: ‘I thought, ‘You can't possibly be an actor, somebody from Warrington. It's not what you do.'

‘So I thought I'd go and teach for a couple of years, and if at the end of that time I still wanted to act then I'd do it.’

Last month, the Mail published extracts from a deeply moving book chronicling his cancer battle Postlethwaite wrote in the weeks before his death.

In A Spectacle Of Dust, which is published tomorrow, he said of wife Jacqueline, who he called Jax: ‘Adorabel Jax, whom I can describe, without any hint of exaggeration, as my one true love.

After being told his cancer was terminal, he added: ‘My decline is insuperable, and I accept it with peace and equanimity. I know my family will miss me, and I will miss them. And that, in the end, is all that matters.’